This Day in Music History — September 17

1967 : Keith Moon of The Who rigs his bass drum to explode at the end of “My Generation” during the group’s appearance on CBS-TV’s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but doesn’t realize that the stage crew had already set the charge. The resulting explosion cuts Moon’s leg, singes Pete Townshend’s hair, and startles fellow guests Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney.

1983 : Vanessa Williams, who would become a popular actress and score a #1 hit with Save The Best For Last, becomes the first black Miss America. She gives up the title the next year after naked photos of her appear in Penthouse.

1998 : A 19-year-old named Amit Singh is removed from the plane after harassing the members of Hootie & the Blowfish on their flight from New York to Los Angeles.

1999 : Rapper Eminem is hit with a $10 million defamation lawsuit filed by his mother Debbie Mathers-Briggs. The suit charges that the rapper made defamatory remarks about his mother in several interviews, including that she was “pill-popping” and “lawsuit-happy.”

2009 : Avril Lavigne and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley go their separate ways after being married since 2006.